Former Blizzard Leads Unveil New Venture at Dreamhaven Showcase

Five years ago, when Mike and Amy Morhaime founded Dreamhaven, I had the opportunity to speak with several of the founding members about their vision for the company. They shared their ambition to create a sustainable publishing and support system for game studios, including the two they were launching at the time, Moonshot and Secret Door, as well as other partners they planned to collaborate with.

At the end of our conversation, Mike Morhaime articulated a bold goal for the new company:

"We want, if I may be so bold as to say, to be a beacon to the industry," he said, drawing inspiration from the company's lighthouse logo. "There's a better way to approach the business of games and the operation of a game company that can produce great results in terms of products, financial reward, and work environment. This approach can help elevate the entire industry."

At the time Dreamhaven was founded, the gaming industry saw a surge of studios led by former AAA executives, all driven by a vision to create something more sustainable and impactful. However, the industry has since faced numerous challenges, including a global pandemic, economic instability, mass layoffs, studio closures, and project cancellations. Many of these visionary studios closed before releasing any games or had to postpone their plans significantly.

Dreamhaven has navigated these turbulent waters successfully. Recently, they partnered with The Game Awards for their first-ever showcase, where they unveiled not one or two, but four new games. Two of these are internally developed: Sunderfolk, a turn-based tactical RPG with couch co-op set for release on April 23, and Wildgate, a newly announced crew-based first-person shooter focused on space heists, which we had the chance to preview. The other two games are being developed externally but published and supported by Dreamhaven: Lynked: Banner of the Spark, an action-RPG from LA-based developer FuzzyBot, already available in early access and set for its 1.0 launch in May, and Mechabellum, a turn-based tactical auto-battler from Chinese studio Game River. Mechabellum launched last September, and with Dreamhaven's support, Game River aims to keep it updated and fresh over the long term.

Dreamhaven's activities extend beyond these four games. They are currently supporting ten other external studios—many of which are led by former AAA developers—through various means such as investments, consultancy, and fundraising support. Sometimes this includes publishing assistance, but not always. Mike Morhaime, speaking at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last week, explained that Dreamhaven's mission from the outset was to form a "net" to "capture some of this great talent that was dispersing" across the industry.

Wildgate - First Screenshots

10 Images“We saw all these studios starting up and we have a lot of relationships,” he remarked. “We knew many of the folks starting up and wanted to create a structure that allowed us to be helpful and support these studios, providing guidance and advice to help them succeed.”

Throughout GDC, the industry's ongoing crisis was a common topic of discussion, with many pointing to the prioritization of profits over all else as a key factor in the wave of cancellations, shut-downs, and layoffs. I asked Morhaime about the tension between craft and business, and he believes the two are not mutually exclusive. However, he emphasized that a good game cannot be made without allowing for occasional failure.

“I think in order to create an environment that allows for innovation, you have to have a certain amount of safety and space to experiment and try things,” he explained. “We're certainly not against these products being successful and profitable. It's about focus. What are these teams focusing on? They're not focusing every day on maximizing profitability at every step. They're trying to make the best experience possible, which we believe is the right business strategy in the long run. There's so much competition in the industry, and the only way to stand out is to create something special.”

Given that Dreamhaven and many of its partners are staffed by AAA veterans, I asked Morhaime about the most significant lesson he took away from his time at Blizzard. He highlighted the importance of an "iterative" game development process.

“It was never linear. It was never a straight line where you have a perfect plan and everything goes according to it, leading to happiness and success. We always encountered obstacles and things that didn't work as expected, and we had the flexibility and adaptability to address those issues along the way. So, I think approaching everything with this perspective, where we want to be experimental and try things, and if they aren't working, we want to be able to fix them, is crucial to ending up with something we're very proud of."

On the other hand, I asked him about the biggest difference between his work at Blizzard and his current approach at Dreamhaven. He succinctly answered: agency.

“Probably the biggest difference is that this is such an experienced team, and we're structured in a way that really gives a ton of agency to our leadership teams in the studios,” he noted.

“It's a unique environment in terms of the relationship that our studios have with the central company. The central teams are really there to support the needs of the studio, and our studio heads and leadership are also founding members of Dreamhaven. So, it's really more of a partnership.”

Our discussion then turned to new technologies, specifically the controversial topic of generative AI. While it's unpopular among gamers and nerve-wracking for many developers, many AAA gaming companies are starting to use it. Dreamhaven, Morhaime explained, isn't shying away from the idea but has so far used it cautiously, limited to research on best practices and internal policy drafting. It's not currently being used in Dreamhaven's games.

“On the one hand, I think it's super exciting, as a technologist, to see what technology can do. We're witnessing the birth of something fascinating in our lifetime. Just a couple of years ago, I'd never imagined that generative AI would be capable of what it's doing now. There are many complexities around it, including legal and ethical issues, and it's hard to predict its impact on our lives. I believe it will affect us in many positive ways, and some scary ones too, but you can't just shut it off and put it back in a box. Those who ignore it will be at a huge disadvantage.”

I then asked about a less controversial new technology, the Nintendo Switch 2. Sunderfolk and Lynked are both coming to Switch, while Mechabellum remains Steam-exclusive due to its genre. Notably, the Switch was absent from Wildgate’s multi-platform announcement. Morhaime didn't elaborate on Wildgate specifically but offered his thoughts on the new console:

“I think console transitions can be very disruptive, but they can also be invigorating and beneficial for the games industry,” he said. “As a gaming startup, I think console transitions are positive for us. If you already have games and are selling, there might be some disruption to worry about, but we don't have that problem. And as a gamer, I find console transitions exciting.”

As we concluded our conversation, I asked Morhaime if he believes Dreamhaven has achieved the mission he outlined five years ago. Is Dreamhaven a "beacon to the industry"? Morhaime feels they're not there yet. They still need to release their games and see the response from players and the industry.

“We have to put out some games that people love and be financially successful, because if we aren't either of those two things, nobody's going to look at us as a beacon for anything,” he said.

“What I want to see happen is for Dreamhaven to build a reputation with gamers that the brand stands for something, a seal of quality. Hopefully, there's some trust that we've built up where players know that if a game is coming from Dreamhaven, regardless of genre, it's going to be something very special, and they'll be curious to check it out.”